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You’re Only As Strong As Your Weakest Link But As Wise As Your Strongest
Back in 2002, when I still watched television, I remember the game show, the Weakest Link. The premise of this game was to have a team of players trying to reach and bank a set target within a limited time period by answering a chain of answers correctly. The chain was broken if one player answered incorrectly, or if they decided to bank the money in the chain already. When a player answered the question wrong, they were eliminated and the game show host would see them off by saying: “You are the weakest link. Goodbye!”
Obviously, each team hoped to have what they thought to be “strong” players, as that would help them to achieve their individual goals. They didn’t always recognize where the “weakest” link would be, so it was important to each do their best to keep in the game in order to potentially make a play for their win they helped to grow.
In this scenario, the “strongest” links were self-serving in their quest as well, and therefore not truly acting from the spirit and wisdom of “team effort” for a greater good. After all, these games are focused on winning and that tends to be an individual goal rather than being in the spirit of unity.
Now, I’m not about “winning or losing”, nor supporting a game of humiliation as a spectacle, but the premise here of the “whole” being only as strong as the weakest link within that whole, I feel has some important symbolism in terms of integrative healing processes that have been a focal point for everyone. And especially so if you are wanting to move into the fullness, freedom, and expansion of you, since doing so involves having done the integrative, deep, and honest work that will bring you to the realizations that have always resided within, awaiting you to embrace their truth.
You will only be able to do as much as is equal to the amount your shadow aspects have been loved, embraced, integrated, and transmuted. This is evident in the things that suddenly crop up or trigger you, or perhaps even completely pull the rug out from under you when you thought everything was peachy keen.
You can be chugging along feeling things are all lining up and incredible, then suddenly hit a break in the train track along the way and boom! Crash goes your puffed-up ego and positive “I think I can” fluffy engine with a domino effect of all your cars/pieces smashing one into the other, all the way down to your caboose, because you weren’t keeping in conscious, full-spectrum connection with the whole picture.
You can’t fake your way through life and you definitely can’t spiritually bypass the shadows within you that will blare at you from all angles until you revisit your natural feelings in a deeper, holistic way.
It’s not about judgment either, so weak doesn’t mean bad, wrong, or less enlightened…it simply is a piece that hasn’t seen the light yet, nor has been nurtured with the wisdom of your strongest parts that can lovingly assist them into empowerment, if given the committed attention and energy.
To explain how this works, remember that a link is something that holds things together. So in the case of a chain, if you pull from each end of it, your ability to break the chain is in proportion to how strong the links in the chain are, which dictates the amount of force it would take to do so – small or large.
It is said that if every link within the chain has the ability to withstand a strong force without breaking, then the chain is strong. If just one link breaks with even just a weak force, then the whole chain is weak, despite the strength of the other links. (hold that last thought until I revisit it shortly)
Something can come out and bite you in the butt by surprise because of untended old beliefs, repressed and denied emotions, and past pains unhealed.
So it’s a way of pointing out the weak points, or parts in need of your love, within you. You will find greater strength with all the new you are creating when you’ve refreshed and strengthened the old, weathered foundation/weak points.
But rather than measure yourself by your challenges, feel humiliation, shame, or defeat about the weaker aspects (as the game show liked to capitalize on), it would benefit you more to be grateful for them showing up and messaging you – seeing them as a helpful, valuable, and incredibly useful partner wanting to provide you the insights and tools to build the greatest creations ever.
Embracing your vulnerability and honesty with love, rather than judgment, ridicule, or self-punishment will provide you the gentle grace to fly. Self-punishment only keeps you caged.
But now let’s push play, from our previous hold, and take a look at the flip side as well. Is the chain really weak, because of some pieces needing your attention? Or is it that these weaker links are requiring your most wisest, strongest parts to step up to the plate and truly enact “real” strength to operate from their full potential?
While your weakest, untended parts/link may hinder, they do have their beauty and perfection for their presence in your life. And I have firmly believed that they hold the key to the most beautiful of your gifts and strengths when realized for what they are behind the distorted mirrors. There will always be seasons of change and inconstancy is part of the constancy of change. Your weaker and stronger parts don’t have to be a dichotomy of black and white duality, but rather the perspective of harmony within perfect elements that when understood, can create alchemy in your life.
Small tweaks to how we see and feel about things does change everything.
So, in fact, you are also as strong as your strongest links because the strength within their wisdom can be utilized productively, rather than as a force against or powering over the other parts. You can harness their innate clarity, courage, and compassion to meld with their counterparts to provide them exactly the cultivation they need for transmutation.
The wisdom of your strongest links wouldn’t dismiss the weaker links with a simple “goodbye”, as takes place in the game show, just because they don’t currently have the “right stuff”, as this can turn into denial or suppression since nothing was ever addressed. No, they don’t just go away by thinking them gone or ignoring them.
Instead, the wisdom of your strongest links would recognize there’s a vital ingredient the “weaker” have that will greatly impact the empowerment of the whole, so it is in the stronger link’s best interest to find ways to draw out and fortify the fine points rather than completely dismiss a part of the “team”. They have the vision to see that doing this will make them a force to reckon with, that will open more doors for ALL of you.
So rather than be the perpetrators of ridicule, enlist your strong links to replenish, renew, and reactivate the links in need, by utilizing the wisdom recognized in their call for help.
In this way both your so-called “weakest” and “strongest” links can rise to the occasion and support the fullness of your whole being.
Getting “Real” Really Is Key
Little by little I’m seeing that people are coming to understand that there’s more to creating change than simply being “positive” and reciting affirmations, which is so refreshing. And so it seems that another round of inner reflection about your emotional landscape is coming up as an important topic again to reflect on, as you are working with integrating the deep roots of your experience.
I’ve written a lot on this subject including this August post:
It’s Okay to Feel ~ Allowing Your Humanness To Be The Reflection Of Divinity It Is.
So I smiled when I read this short MindBodyGreen article, a few days ago, by Aimee Dufresne:
Stop Being “Positive” and Start Getting Real (Joy) In Your Life
In it, Aimee shares a few of her own simple hints and good places to start, to help you to “get real”.
As she puts it, just being positive is:
….”like trying to fit into the cutest pair of shoes that you want so badly but the only size available is a half size smaller than your feet. So you push and prod and tell yourself you can do it. You can bend your big toe and walk at an odd angle. Maybe the shoes will stretch if you wear them long enough. That chaffing isn’t so bad, is it?
Yes, it is. The further you push and force yourself into something that doesn’t fit, the more struggle and angst you will feel.”
So, if you have found yourself doing some of the spiritual bypassing, “fluffiness”, or denial with your emotions, where you “fake” a reality of feeling, crack a smile, and simply affirm otherwise, then you may want to check the links out and revisit your natural feelings in a deeper, holistic way.
Reason For Rainbows
Just because….
I was inspired this morning when I woke up and saw the 8 paintings I’ve done so far, displayed across the floor in a rainbow collage that tickled my heart and soul. I then knew instantly I was being guided to post some rainbow inspiration, so I am sharing these photos that I’ve taken of some rainbows showing up in my life and this enlivening music by Yanni (whom I listen to so often), as there is always a “Reason for Rainbows”.
Okay, so maybe the reason is that the way I live my life is from the full spectrum of the rainbow, and then some.
Maybe it’s because my palette as an artist of life is limitless in breadth of colorful experiences and I am one who loves to dip into life fully and make splashes with vibrancy.
Maybe it’s because our feelings are like a rainbow of reflections that are beautiful in and of themselves. And, when fully expressed, are a miracle of natural art that IS only because of the integral flowing strokes coming together.
And maybe it’s because life just simply is a rainbow of experiences that I find to be an exciting adventure.
I know I am definitely experiencing the colors of life in high definition these days and that equates to pure harmony. I have even seen this weekend the mirror of this not only in my current paintings I’m creating, as I continue to explore the unlimited colors and combinations, but also in two sunsets back to back that have been stunning, high-definition, colorful sunset displays of the Universe giggling along with me in my “rainbow explorations”. Who knows what today will bring. It’s a suspenseful surprise always!
“Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear.” ~Unknown
I’ve already shared about letting your feelings move through you and allowing your humanness to be the reflection of Divinity it is. The feelings that you bury, never go away until you embrace, forgive, and allow them to move through you. A good place to start is to always be mindful and conscious of what you’re feeling, thinking, saying, AND doing. See how these are setting the tone for your day…and life..and be willing to receive the origin of these feelings (as there is always a trigger to something behind it) so that with recognition and accountability, you can let them go.
Feelings are like all things natural…they must keep cycling through or you end up fighting an exhausting and futile battle against the inevitable.
Each color of your wings is a color of your truth and spirit to share. Don’t be afraid to let it flow. Spread your wings wide and sore to the heights of you.
“Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.” ~Aberjhani